Do you need a wide angle lens adapter?
Dieting, physique obsession, and all forms of disordered eating have a way of stopping our life and tightening its focus, like the zoom lens on a camera followed by the shutter capturing a moment and freezing its narrow perspective in time and space. Much of the outside world becomes strangely irrelevant and there's little energy for hobbies, passions or relationships we once had.
At first, the finessing and intensity of our diet hyperacuity may be chosen and purposefully attended to. But as the brain’s “normal” shifts through neuroplasticity, survival instinct triggers increased attention on the newly-perceived “threats” that we have taught our brains to avoid (specific macros, missed exercise, eating without logging calories, etc.).
Likewise, as endocrine, neurochemical, nutritional and metabolic shifts occur, the body’s efforts at homeostasis constrict the scope of our thinking to disproportionately focus on food as a way to encourage consumption and, through such, the availability of nutrients for its choosing.
In my article “Pain is not the same as Harm” I spoke about how the Amygdala and Frontal Lobes interact during the process of decision and analysis. And the article explained how our conscious decisions and desires can create interpretations in the Frontal Lobes that then “teach” our Amygdala new fears, or enhance existing levels of instinctive, inherited, and perceived fears.
But by focusing solely on the fear/reactivity cycle at play within us when exposed to threats, this explanation doesn’t expand to address an adjacent precipitating event:
the narrowing of our cognitive awareness and interactive capabilities.
Hyper focus on food and body image of any kind takes an enormous amount of physical, mental, and emotional investment. An individual does not generally lose the ability to think clearly (although with severe malnutrition the brain does actually shrink and slow down, and mental processing capability is temporarily lost). Rather, the distribution of thoughts pertaining to interests, sensory awareness, internal dynamics, relationships, and other external environmental influences becomes distorted, with food and body image consuming an increasingly and disproportionately large amount of bandwidth.
Decisions become more about feelings and the “now”, with less consideration of future implications. Impulsivity overrides rationality. Wisdom is clouded by panic and compulsion.
Becoming receptive to the idea that your focus may be skewed and narrowed is a topic I discussed in detail in my post “Are you seeing clearly?” I spoke to the imperativeness of having intellectual humility as an instigator and facilitator of change. But from a place of fear it can be difficult, if not impossible, to adopt a perspective of curiosity, enthusiasm, independence, and ultimately growth. These are essentially the characteristics involved in viewing life through a wide angle lens.
In photography, a wide angle lens allows for a focal length that can record distant landscape naturally with only minimal distortions. The depth of perception is extended beyond what a traditional lens can provide, allowing for shots that literally draw the viewer into the vivid scenery.
Most cameras don’t have this capability by themselves. They are created to capture a reasonable amount of depth, and to focus narrowly when desired, before the shutter freezes the moment to record history and create tokens of memory. In order to use a wide angle lens, an adapter must first be placed on the existing camera, allowing the broad lens to then be attached and viewed through.
In the same way, when life has closed in and our focus has narrowed, we often need assistance to broaden our ranges of visibility.
For me, education served as my wide angle lens adapter. I am an academic sort; my brain desires information and detailed understanding. So learning about how to body works (the endocrine system, the nervous system, metabolism, cellular function, etc.) enabled for me a wider perspective on how I was currently fueling myself and what my body needed to function optimally.
Isolation wreaks havoc on the healthiest of human beings. Our modern societal structure does not encourage interaction with each other in a meaningful way. A US News & World Report article several years ago reported that the average number of close friends that person in the US had was 2.2. If that was the average (and we all know people who have enough friends for 50 of us…) that means that many people have essentially no close friends. But isolation reduces our exposure by default. External interaction, activities, and friendships are stripped away, replaced by additional focus on more personal areas… often times our diets and our bodies. So the simple act of spending time with family, neighbors, or a social group can effectively be used as a lens adaptor.
On a similar note, comparison to the surrounding world in a healthy way can reveal possibilities that were hidden by the isolation of disordered eating. In so doing, goals and new dreams often replace the rigidity and confinement brought on by a lens hyper focused on food. Read more on healthy comparison here.
For others, emotional support through teaming up with a coach or therapist is enough to knock down walls of resistance. A supportive relationship with someone who has transitioned from a life of intense focus to one capable of viewing the world and self with greater depth can expose false premises underlying decisions, offer navigation advice with wisdom, and establish foundations of truth from which to explore.
If you’d like to use my services as a wide angle lens adapter, reach out and schedule a free intro chat. I’d love to help you add more landscape shots to your life album.
